I'm currently running a i7 3770k CPU with a Gigabyte GeForce Gtx 680 4gb oc edition
I have a h100 corsair liquid cooling installed as well (initially for overclocking) I use this mainly for gaming.
At the moment I am playing all my games at max graphics with no problems.

So basically, I'm just wondering what difference will I notice if I overclock my CPU
And the same with my gpu.

Is there any point to do so to begin with

What are safe temperatures to run the gpu and CPU at,
Which won't affect the life span of my rig too harshly

return to what you need
faster processing or better handling in high textures or like that
for me both is pretty fast but if you want to try you can try cpu first, raise little by little
10% from stock i guess is ok, then you check the temp and test the stability of your system

So basically, I'm just wondering what difference will I notice if I overclock my CPU
And the same with my gpu.

Is there any point to do so to begin with

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For gaming that CPU is overkill anyway, and no you will probably not notice a lot. Overclocking these days are pretty much only for enthusiasts and the ones who enjoy it. Unless you're doing rendering work or something CPU intense there is zero point to it.

you failed to mention your PSU. your GPU is very hungry and you will need a decent PSU to overclock them together. i go with Frick, overclocking is purely limited for enthusiasts and people who like to do it. hardware nowadays is pretty good enough for gaming and etc.

I always look at it in a more selfish way, for every extra Mhz I get out of my CPU and GPU (and Ram) I am getting technically "free" performance, everything at stock is paid for

I suppose the answer to your question is that by overclocking, even just a little you will get extra frames, if you really don't need those extra frames in the games you play then don't bother. It is of course more important to those buying budget systems, if they can spend half of what you spend but acheive a system that pretty much competes with yours due to overclocking then thats a real gain.

Example: I paid £70 new for my current processor a month ago, yours in the UK is around £225, over 3 times as much, yours on Turbo boost will hit 3.9Gig, mine is run at 4.3gig, I am probably getting similar or perhaps even better performance levels for a third of the cost That does not mean my or your approach is wrong, just that it's different.

I wouldn't say that there's no point to overclocking your system. There's a motto which says you can't have too much power for a gaming system and there's truth to it.

In this case, you might find that current games all reach a solid 60 or 120fps with vsync on, but newer games may well not. For example, Crysis 3 may well be really tough on the system, so any performance boost you get would help. Even on games that run at high fps, it can still help to avoid judders where the fps dips by a large amount. So yeah, you can't have too much power.

If you want a safe OC with SB/IB I would just start out by leaving everything on default while ONLY change the mutli to 40x and if that turns out to be stable do 1x increases until you find the most stable clock for default settings. Also monitor your temps with RealTemp and voltages with CPUz.

For gaming that CPU is overkill anyway, and no you will probably not notice a lot. Overclocking these days are pretty much only for enthusiasts and the ones who enjoy it. Unless you're doing rendering work or something CPU intense there is zero point to it.

So what your saying Is if in the future my hardware is outdated then instead of updating my gpu etc, that is when I should overclock.

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Well to put it quite simply, if Intel releases a new CPU that at stock, clock for clock is a 10% performance improvement over your existing 3770, simply overclock your current CPU by 11% and you have faster performance, of course it's relative as if you were prepared to overclock in the first place you would be overclocking the new CPU

I wouldn't say that there's no point to overclocking your system. There's a motto which says you can't have too much power for a gaming system and there's truth to it.

In this case, you might find that current games all reach a solid 60 or 120fps with vsync on, but newer games may well not. For example, Crysis 3 may well be really tough on the system, so any performance boost you get would help. Even on games that run at high fps, it can still help to avoid judders where the fps dips by a large amount. So yeah, you can't have too much power.

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Games that demanding are pretty much exceptions nowadays, and an unlocked Intel CPU is fast enough on stock to handle it that well without overclocking.

I always look at it in a more selfish way, for every extra Mhz I get out of my CPU and GPU (and Ram) I am getting technically "free" performance, everything at stock is paid for

Example: I paid £70 new for my current processor a month ago, yours in the UK is around £225, over 3 times as much, yours on Turbo boost will hit 3.9Gig, mine is run at 4.3gig, I am probably getting similar or perhaps even better performance levels for a third of the cost That does not mean my or your approach is wrong, just that it's different.

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To be fair you have an "old" CPU. As Intel do things now you pay a premium for overclocking, and still loose other features (like VT-d on the upcoming Haswell), so the argument that you can get performance for free is not true anymore. For the Intel side that is. The old times are gone and will not come back.

To be fair you have an "old" CPU. As Intel do things now you pay a premium for overclocking, and still loose other features (like VT-d on the upcoming Haswell), so the argument that you can get performance for free is not true anymore. For the Intel side that is. The old times are gone and will not come back.

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True, however it does apply to me currently which is why I gave him that example, I appreciate with current and new tech that may well not be the case.

For gaming that CPU is overkill anyway, and no you will probably not notice a lot. Overclocking these days are pretty much only for enthusiasts and the ones who enjoy it. Unless you're doing rendering work or something CPU intense there is zero point to it.

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It would be much more easier to tell him to quit TPU....... Don't listen to "Mr.Negativity". His overall performance will benefit from overclocking. Why be negative? The guy bought water cooling for his 3770K. A better choice would have been no comment at all.

Ok, I am done with that. What kind of motherboard do you have? Yo can easily overclock the 3770K by raising the multiplier on stock voltage to see how high it can get. Raise the multi in small increments and run an hour or so on prime95. if it passes up the multi 1 or 2 more nothes tioll it fails. Then add vcore. Watch your temps and keep it 75 or under and your golden. it is pretty simple.

It would be much more easier to tell him to quit TPU....... Don't listen to "Mr.Negativity". His overall performance will benefit from overclocking. Why be negative? The guy bought water cooling for his 3770K. A better choice would have been no comment at all.

Ok, I am done with that. What kind of motherboard do you have? Yo can easily overclock the 3770K by raising the multiplier on stock voltage to see how high it can get. Raise the multi in small increments and run an hour or so on prime95. if it passes up the multi 1 or 2 more nothes tioll it fails. Then add vcore. Watch your temps and keep it 75 or under and your golden. it is pretty simple.

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I have the asrock z77 extreme 6, I just raise the multiplier through pressing f2 at start up?

..Raise the multi in small increments and run an hour or so on prime95. if it passes up the multi 1 or 2 more nothes tioll it fails. Then add vcore...

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This will really confuse matters... (not what you said, what I'm about to say).

I had heat issues and a high voltage with my SB-E. My 3930k was asking for about 1.38v (VID) on my 4.0GHz setting. I brought the vcore right down (1.32v) using the offset in BIOS (-0.06) and it runs about 5-10 degrees cooler and is still perfectly stable.

It's still fun overclocking. There's more to it than multi's if you have a chip that doesn't play nice!

This will really confuse matters... (not what you said, what I'm about to say).

I had heat issues and a high voltage with my SB-E. My 3930k was asking for about 1.38v (VID) on my 4.0GHz setting. I brought the vcore right down (1.32v) using the offset in BIOS (-0.06) and it runs about 5-10 degrees cooler and is still perfectly stable.

It's still fun overclocking. There's more to it than multi's if you have a chip that doesn't play nice!

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Roger that, officially confused.
I'm just running tests on 4.6 ghz now to see if its stable from raising multis. That way is simple however I've just left it all on auto. Is that the best way?

Roger that, officially confused.
I'm just running tests on 4.6 ghz now to see if its stable from raising multis. That way is simple however I've just left it all on auto. Is that the best way?

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Well, the thing with auto settings, whilst being the simplest is not always the best, often auto will give you higher voltages than you need, for example, check your VCore under load with the auto setting, then go into Bios and set VCore a little below that, test stability then further reduce until you get to the point that the system crashes, then up it a couple of notches and you should be good, remembering that less voltage and less heat is good!

If voltages are pretty low anyway and your happy with that then just keep it how it is.

even if you are bigger in overclocking, u have good cooling i think just leave everything on auto and just rise up the CPU multiplier at 40x to 42x so u will got 4.2ghz it will great, stocl voltage will be more than enough for your CPU.

even if you are bigger in overclocking, u have good cooling i think just leave everything on auto and just rise up the CPU multiplier at 40x to 42x so u will got 4.2ghz it will great, stocl voltage will be more than enough for your CPU.

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If you leave voltage on auto it won't leave it at stock, it will automatically increase voltage on the CPU to keep it stable. However it pretty much always increases the voltage much more than is necessary. Always best to force it to a specific voltage or use offsets in order to get it to use less.